Are you tired of okra yet?

I didn't think it was possible, but I'm about to be.  I was getting to the end of my list of okra recipes when I decided to go ahead and google them.  I found some real gems!  So here's a few of my new recipes for okra, and a few others to go with everything else you guys are stockpiling from shares and your own gardens!

Curried Okra with Onions

Ingredients:

• 1 pound okra, washed, trimmed, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, quartered and sliced
• dash cayenne pepper, or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon mild curry powder, or to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a large heavy non-stick or well seasoned iron skillet; add okra and fry for 10 minutes, turning frequently to keep from sticking. When the okra is lightly browned, add remaining ingredients. Continue cooking for an 3 minutes longer, or until onions are tender. Serves 6.

Creole Pizza with Okra and Shrimp

Ingredients:

• 1 can tomato sauce, (8 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 4 drops red pepper sauce
• 2 cups Bisquick® baking mix
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/3 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1 package frozen sliced okra, thawed, drained (10 ounces)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen peeled medium shrimp, thawed  (I'd bet you could substitute chicken for the shrimp, yuck)
• 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation:

Heat oven to 425°. Combine tomato sauce with oregano, basil, salt, garlic powder, pepper, and hot pepper sauce. Mix baking mix and the cold water. Roll into 12-inch circle on cookie sheet; pinch edge, forming 1/2-inch rim. Sprinkle shredded Monterey Jack cheese over crust; spread with pizza sauce. Top with pepper, onion, okra, shrimp and chopped tomato. Sprinkle with the shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake until crust is golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes.

Bayou Gumbo

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 pound smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices
• 3/4 to 1 pound boneless chicken thighs, cut in bite-size pieces
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups frozen cut okra
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup frozen medium shrimp, cleaned and cooked
• 1 1/2 cups uncooked regular long-grain white rice
• 3 cups chicken broth or water (updated 9/07)

Preparation:

In small saucepan, combine flour and oil; mix well. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring constantly, about 8 to 12 minutes or until mixture turns a light red-brown. Place flour and oil mixture in 3 1/2 to 4-quart crockpot. Stir in all remaining ingredients except shrimp, rice, and broth or water. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours. Add cooked shrimp to the gumbo; mix well. Cover and continue to cook on LOW for 20 minutes longer. Meanwhile, cook rice in the broth or water according to package directions. Serve gumbo over the hot cooked rice.
Serves 6 to 8.

Curried Ketchup

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• Pinch ground cloves

Put the tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, curry powder, salt, pepper and cloves into a saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil, stir to dissolve the sugar and cook until the tomatoes have broken down and the mixture is slightly thick, about 10 minutes. Pour the mix into a food processor and pulse until smooth. Let cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Place in a decorative bowl to serve.
Yield: 1 cup 

 Tomato Onion Tart


1 Pate Brisee dough for a 10" tart
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
1 and 1/2 Lb yellow onions, sliced
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
6 oz gruyère, grated
1 Lb cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick. Fit into tart pan, trim, and chill 30 minutes while preparing the onions and preheating the oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 425F with racks in the bottom third and upper third of the oven. If you have a pizza stone, place it on the bottom rack.
3. Set a large, heavy pot oven medium heat. Add oil and butter. When butter is melted, add onions and salt. Cook stirring occasionally until onions are tender, about 12 minutes. Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook stirring occasionally until onions are medium brown, about 45 minutes. Add balsamic vinegar (optional), and cook stirring occasionally until onions are dark nutty brown, about 15 minutes. Take off heat and set aside.
4. Place the tart pan on a cookie sheet. Line the tart shell with parchment paper or foil and dry beans (or some other weigh) and bake in the bottom third of the oven for 18 minutes. Remove parchment paper with beans, lightly poke dough with a fork at 1/4 inch intervals to prevent it from puffing up, and return to the bottom third of the oven for 5 more minutes.
5. Turn down the oven to 375F.
6. Fill the tart shell with caramelized onions. Sprinkle with a layer of gruyère. Arrange cherry tomatoes cut side down in concentric circles starting with the outer circle and working your way in towards the center of the tart. Bake tart on the bottom rack for 15 minutes. Move tart to the top rack and bake until tomatoes are just starting to brown, 15 more minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

 Good luck with all those tomatoes and okra, but remember: learning to be creative and try new things are part of the CSA experience!

Happy cooking!

The pitfalls of wholesale.

I know, I know, my neglect for this poor blog is appalling, but I'm trying to dedicate myself again!  Look for recipes, photos, and farm stories in the (hopefully!) near future!

Our season has been so fickle so far.  Disappointments, shock, and utter disbelief plague us at every turn.  It's been unbelievable, thus far, what has happened to us--a textbook example of the things that happen to a farm, all in our first year!  We've had early crop failures of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage (all of which we hope to get a good crack at again in the fall), overwhelming amounts of weeds coming on, poor time management, horrible harvests, and a crazy storm that collapsed the polyhouse (onto one hundred twenty tomato plants!).  However, we're pulling strong to catch up, and we haven't been horribly affected thus far.  ... Thus far.  Fingers crossed!

Richland Community College's Farmer's Market is going really well.  It's tripled in vendor size since our first week, and it's really looking up!  The crowd is great, and the other vendors are fantastic.  The support between the small farms is tremendous!
 
I feel like this is a great opportunity to educate you all on the evils of buying wholesale produce.  Yes, it's cheap, but, it is impossible for a small farm that actually GROWS their own produce to compete!  Buying bulk cheaply and reselling at a price that completely undercuts neighbouring vendors is a sure way to make sure you have no competition--because everyone else will either close up shop and move to another market, or they will simply be driven out of business.  Take a look around; do the other tents have massive amounts of produce stockpiled for purchase?  Does anyone else have that trailer full of watermelons in big, brown boxes, suspiciously similar to the ones they sit in in your local grocery store?  Ask where, exactly, the produce in question is grown.  Ask if they allow farm tours.  Ask anything that pertains to the produce, and if they stutter, refuse to answer, or plain lie to your face (a sad reality), move on.  Please, support your local farmers.  Prices are higher because we have to sustain ourselves and our families off of the income we get from the markets.  We have to pay for supplies to grow the produce, for labor.  Wholesale "farms" have none of these--or not near as much as someone who would grow all of that themselves.  So the next time you go to your local Farmer's Market, look around--be conscious of the decisions you're making.  Just because you're spending your money at a Market doesn't make it a "green" financial decision.


Looking forward to seeing you all next week at Market, or CSA members on Tuesday for your weekly share!


Happy eating,
Golden Oldies Farm

Look out, Facebook ...

It's happened--we're on Facebook!  Look for us now!

There are two accounts, being as Facebook won't let you escape once you sign up, and we ended up with a mobile duplicate that won't delete now.  But there's information on one, and not on the other.


Deadline for purchasing shares is March 5, 2010; hurry and get your piece of the farm now!

Oh Spring, Where Art Thou?

Is it spring yet?  Here on the farm, we're staring out across the fields that have yet to be chiselled, with corn stalks poking up out of the frozen ground, wishing the snow would just melt away into glorious black dirt beds. 

"It's just around the corner," says Farmer Brown.

... Well it's a long, long corner if you ask me.  But it will be here soon (darn you, Punxatawney Phil), with promises of huge bounties and perfect conditions!

Reality Strikes Again!

The reality of farming: trying to sell your grain in the dead of winter, and having to abandon it, tractor and all, in the grip of a snowstorm and praying the neighbor doesn't mind the equipment parked in their yard.

It's not our grain, but we are the neighbors, and it surely evokes sympathy for the struggling farmers in the midwest.

Welcome to Golden Oldies Farm C.S.A.!

Hello! Thank you for joining us for our first growing season! We have so much planned for the next year, from day-range chickens to a watering system. Hopefully you are just as excited as we are!

We will be keeping this page updated to let you know about everything happening on the farm. I will be posting pictures and blogs to keep you, our shareholders, informed. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them here!

Keep checking back as I get this updated with lots of information about your farm!